Left-Behind Trace [Open]

[standalonehuman]

WHO: Togusa and people!
WHERE: The hospital, oops.
WHEN: January 7th and onwards.
WHAT: Togusa got shot, he's in the hospital, and finally knows how his Other got shot.
WARNINGS: Discussion of violence, medical treatment, and the like.

The news probably didn't take long to reach a lot of people. Togusa got brought to the hospital with a gunshot wound. Togusa's official story is that he got shot stopping an opportunistic mugger trying to steal things in the chaos of the fire. So what actually happened?

Comments

[standalonehuman]

"Mm," Togusa can see this, especially because he was there to see Shuji's story. "The stories we tell ourselves about our lives can have more impact than the events, themselves. But life as story? It makes sense with what Retrospec is talking about."

[thesettingsun]

"We're all remembering the stories of our past selves. Jumbled up and confusing stories, but stories."

Sad ones, happy ones, ones with no satisfying ending.

[standalonehuman]

"It's like we got the book unbound with all the pages out of order," Togusa nods in agreement.

"I can start to piece some of it together." An unhappy laugh. "At least I've got a good point to figure out what's happened before and after, now."

[thesettingsun]

"I can usually tell if a memory is while Dazai was alive or dead. Beyond that, don't ask me to put anything in order."

Shuji can at least figure that the childhood memories are first. Everything else gets more complicated.

[standalonehuman]

A pause, as Togusa remembers that Koutarou said something similar. "Is that how it works, then? They got called back to serve, dealing with the Taints, after they had died? That's how you get the difference between Dazai the writer, and Dazai the," Togusa mimics swinging a weapon.

[thesettingsun]

"Ghost, ink spirit, take your pick. That's not exactly how it works, I think, but it's not different in any way that's important, so we'll go with that."

Dazai himself seems to have only had a partial grasp on the process.

"If there are letters floating in the sky, that's definitely after dying. Same if I'm holding a scythe. Those are the easiest ones."